Your tittle-tattlers, and those who listen to slander, by my good will should all be hanged – the former by their tongues, the latter by the ears. [Homines qui gestant, quique auscultant crimina, Si meo arbitratu liceat, omnes pendeant, Gestores linguis, auditores auribus.] ~ Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus), Pseudolus (I, 5, 12)

And truly, I’ll devise some honest slanders / To stain my cousin with. / One doth not know / How much an ill word may empoison liking. ~ Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing (Hero at III, i)

I am disgraced, impeached, and baffled here; / Pierced to the soul with slander’s venomed spear, / The which no balm can cure but his heart-blood / Which breathed this poison. ~ William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of King Richard the Second (Mowbray at I, i)

A slander is like a hornet; if you can’t kill it dead the first time, better not strike at it. ~ Josh Billings

Slander is the revenge of a coward, and dissimulation of his defense. ~ Samuel Johnson

The worthiest people are the most injured by slander, as is the best fruit which the birds have been pecking at. ~ Jonathan Swift

Have patience awhile; slanders are not long-lived. Truth is the child of time; ere long she shall appear to vindicate thee. ~ Immanuel Kant

He who knows how to flatter also knows how to slander. ~ Napoleon Bonaparte

Slander is worse than cannibalism. ~ John Chrysostom

The common argument that crime is caused by poverty is a kind of slander on the poor. ~ H. L. Mencken

A generous confession disarms slander. ~ Thomas Fuller

A man calumniated is doubly injured – first by him who utters the calumny, and then by him who believes it. ~ Herodotus

Backbite. To ”speak of a man as you find him” when he can’t find you. ~ Ambrose Bierce

I am about courting a girl I have had but little acquaintance with. How shall I come to a knowledge of her faults, and whether she has the virtues I imagine she has? Answer. Commend her among her female acquaintances. ~ Benjamin Franklin

It is always to be understood that a lady takes all you detract from the rest of her sex to be a gift to her.~ Joseph Addison

If a man could say nothing against a character but what he can prove, history could not be written. ~ Samuel Johnson

If you know somebody is going to be awfully annoyed by something you write, that’s obviously very satisfying, and if they howl with rage or cry, that’s honey. ~ A. N. Wilson

It takes an enemy and a friend, working together, to hurt you to the heart. The one to slander you, and the other to get the news to you. ~ Mark Twain

Our disputants put me in mind of the cuttlefish that, when he is unable to extricate himself, blackens the water about him till he becomes invisible. ~ Joseph Addison

What is said of a man is nothing. The point is, who says it. ~ Oscar Wilde

You have got to be careful quoting Ronald Reagan, because when you quote him accurately it is called mudslinging. ~ Fritz Mondale

Life would be a perpetual flea-hunt if a man were obliged to run down all the innuendoes, inveracities, insinuations and suspicions which are uttered against him. ~ Henry Ward Beecher

Slander is the balm of malignity. ~ Sebastien-Roch-Nicolas de Chamfort

The slander of some people is as great a recommendation as the praise of others. ~ Henry Fielding

Defamation is becoming a necessity of life; inasmuch as a dish of tea in the morning or evening cannot be digested without this stimulant. ~ Thomas Jefferson

Slugs crawl and crawl over our cabbages, like the world’s slander over a good name. You may kill them, it is true; but there is the slime. ~ Douglas William Jerrold

About This Site

This site offers a daily column on current events, and unlike other blogs, in long form. Short posts pointing to this and that and saying "Oh my!" seems a bit lazy. Columns here are an attempt to think things through. If you'd like to come along for the ride, fine. If you have neither the time nor patience for that, that is also fine - you can click on the LINKS tab at the top of the page and visit the sites that offer quick hits. Those provide the raw material for the analyses here.

The views here are mine alone, save for the occasional column from Ric in Paris or comments from key readers, like Rick, the News Guy in Atlanta, and others.

Commentary and guest columns are posted here, but there is a sister site, Just Above Sunset Photography, where images are far more important than words. That site is updated daily. Take a look.

JUST ABOVE SUNSET has been online, in various formats, since May 2003. Click on the ABOUT tab at the top of the page for more on that, and a note on who I am.